Modern Facelift Surgery Techniques

Facelift techniques have changed and improved, allowing patients to receive a more natural look.

Suzzanne Hallock of Delaware was about 60 when she decided she wanted to get a facelift.

"I would recommend it to anybody," the now 72 year-old said.

Hallock said she wanted who she was on the inside to match who she is on the outside.

"I know how happy I am every day when I look in the mirror - it's the me that I see myself as," Hallock said.

Hallock underwent her first facelift more than 10 years ago. Since then, her plastic surgeon Dr. Craig Vander Kolk, Director of Cosmetic Medicine and Surgery at Mercy, said the surgery has certainly changed.

"When we did that surgery, it was much more invasive, it was a bigger operation. Nowadays, with the newer techniques, we can actually make it safer, easier and probably a little more sculpted," Dr. Vander Kolk said.

The facelift itself used to create a scary image for some people.

"Because, in the past, what we would do, we would pull it really tight, and then it would look really flat and artificial," Dr. Vander Kolk said.

But technology has advanced.

"We can readjust the muscles underneath, we can re-drape the skin on the top, we can sculpt the fat away and actually take that fat and use it for grafting to fill little hollows," Dr. Vander Kolk said.

Just three months post-op from her second facelift, Hallock said she can see another huge improvement.

The procedures and recovery time for patients are also much shorter, Dr. Vander Kolk explained.

View Mercy plastic surgeon Dr. Craig Vander Kolk's interview regarding facelift techniques.